Kanpai

Show's Over, Folks

The Tokyo Game Show was a strange one this year, but it told us a lot about the state of games in Japan today.

The most significant contribution to this year's TGS was made in a conference room by the president of a company resolutely refusing to displays its wares on the show floor. That was a strange start. I left Nintendo's demonstration of the Revolution controller with a weird sensation: one of having to take a trip into the past ("What's this two-handed controlling thing all about?") to see a future (more of the same, with better graphics, from MicroSoft and Sony) while carrying a weary sense that the future was being holed up inside a laboratory of Nintendo's HQ in the south of Kyoto. Half of me wanted to go home.

The other half of my freshly chopped brain was very keen to indulge in the games on show. Reason prevailed and I stayed the course. As it turns out, it was worth my while. I picked up a playable demo of the sublime Okami from the generous Capcom folks (these demos were being dished out to anyone who cared), saw the full Metal Gear Solid 4 video (three times, just because it's so incredibly pretty), and met a student of video games who had produced and was exhibiting a hilarious Elevator Action clone called The Otaku In Akihabara. (Judging from his hyped reaction to my interest in the title, I think I may well have been the only person at TGS who bothered to stop and play Otaku In Akihabara. Shame I'd be lying if I said it was any good.)

On the current and next generation of home consoles, a steady supply of sequels were on show to keep serial fans happy (see Soul Calibur III, Ridge Racer 6, Kingdom Hearts II, Dead or Alive 4), while quite a few promising new properties also showed up, led by Okami, Ninety-Nine Nights, and Every Party. But there has been a huge shift in the past year, and it has never been more obvious: innovation has moved to the handhelds. Even Katamari Damacy, the last great escape on the PS2, has rolled over to the PSP. And there's more...

Japan's gamers leave TGS for the most part blissfully unaware of Iwata-san's Revolution announcement, and with a DS/PSP for the train journey home.

Surprisingly, in spite of the DS's ongoing domination of the Japanese market, it was the PSP which had the strongest and most interesting games on show this year. Talkman, for example, is a more useful, multilingual Seaman -- only with the character of a parrot. It should do wonders for Japan's English students (almost everyone here under the age of 30), and its language games are good fun too. Portable Resort was notable mostly for its virtual ukulele -- using the analogue stick to strum a tune feels strangely natural -- but there's also an interesting Animal Forest-ish concept under there somewhere. It could easily be a big success here. As could Every Extend Extra, even if it is just a much cooler, Mizuguchi-stamped version of a freeware Windows game.

Even without Nintendo showing off its own forthcoming DS releases, companies such as Sega and BandaiNamco were on hand to keep the format kicking. The new Tamagotchi game from NanaOn-Shaa is unlike any other virtual pet, and it currently sits atop the Japanese all-format sales chart. Monkey Ball DS, too, is a move away from the norm, effectively translating the control system from Kirby: Canvas Curse into a 3D setup for monkey rolling. And if there's a choice at the end of the year between Sonic Team's Where Do Babies Come From? and Square's Slime Mori Mori on the DS and Sony's Loco Roco on the PSP, well, my PS2 and GameCube will be gathering dust.

Japan is undoubtedly ready for the next-generation of home consoles, but unlike previous generational shifts this transitional period has the advantage of two handheld systems that everyone wants to play, tiding us over until Nintendo begins its innovative Revolution and Sony wows us with true next-gen power. In the meantime, here's to the portable class of '05!